Collaborate closely with Barclays to ensure our courses and training are evolving to meet the dynamic client needs.

Built and implemented SharePoint knowledgebase and collaborative environment to ensure all Synergy trainer resources are fully up to date on all communications and developments at Barclays regardless of location

Results

Increased adoption of SharePoint improving utilization and end user capabilities.

Reduction in support overhead for the improved sites.

Wider population of skilled users and site administrators, realized the advantages of decentralized administration

Overview

Barclays PLC (LSE: BARC, NYSE: BCS) is a global banking and financial services company headquartered in London. As of 2010 it was the world's
10th-largest banking and financial services group. Barclays PLC has operations in over 50 countries and territories across Africa, Asia, Europe,
North America and South America and around 48 million customers. As of June 2011 it had total assets of €1.94 trillion, the third-largest of
any bank worldwide (after BNP Paribas and HSBC).

Challenges/Goals

Barclays PLC has made a significant investment in the SharePoint technology stack. SharePoint is used to offer document management, business process automation and as a collaboration platform for staff located around
the globe.

Barclay’s goal in approaching Synergy was to design and deliver a training solution on SharePoint and Nintex Workflow technologies that would be consistent across three regional hubs. The solution needed to
incorporate SharePoint best practices, internal policies and hands on lab exercises. It was also identified as critical that the courses addressed and resolved common support issues as identified by the support desk.

The overall stated goal was to ensure a more consistent global adoption of the technologies offered by SharePoint and Nintex, while reducing end-user reliance on IT support.

Solution/Approach

Synergy’s approach to delivering a solution for Barclays was at the outset to work closely with Barclays’ SharePoint team to identify and document common support issues form the user population. Once this discovery was
completed, we created custom-crafted courseware from our premium courseware materials and created courseware to specifically emphasize the course materials that addressed the stated learning requirements.

Our consultants worked closely with the Barclays team to edit and review the courseware. We then carried out a pilot training program with key staff at each regional hub to demonstrate the effectiveness of the course materials.
Following the pilot program, we moved to regularly scheduled training in each regional hub. In addition to the courseware customization, we created a series of virtual machines (hosted within our training environment) using
Barclays SharePoint Branding (Master Pages and Themes) to ensure each student training experience was identical to the look-and-feel of their live environment.

To ensure that the training solution was consistent across the globe, we identified a training project manager who connected with our trainers around the globe on a regular basis to share lessons learned from each class. A
SharePoint Wiki site was set up to document Barclay’s specific processes, user feedback, and classroom experiences. All communications with Barclays Learning and Development staff, the SharePoint team, and students are
communicated to all consultants engaged with Barclays to ensure we are all offering involved, up-to-date support and training.

By leveraging the social collaboration features of SharePoint, our consultants work closely with each other to ensure our team has a solid, up to the minute understanding of all aspects of Barclays training in spite of time zone
differences and geographic diversity.

Trainee satisfaction with our trainers have resulted in an increase in course attendance through internal referrals, and in many cases, a rework of many of the sites and site collections in use to leverage the skills
and knowledge gained during the classes.

Adoption of business process automation through workflow has improved, with more Site Administrators understanding the powerful capabilities of workflow. Sites that were previously difficult to support and use are now
more self-sufficient.